GM Joins Top Tier in Quality Rankings

General Motors Corp. broke the import auto makers’ stranglehold on the top slots in the annual automotive Initial Quality Survey by J.D. Power & Associates, taking third place in corporate standings away from Nissan Motor Co., industry executives familiar with the study said Thursday.

Nissan’s Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. retained their respective first- and second-place positions.

Among individual models, Toyota and its Lexus luxury brand swept six of the seven truck categories and took top honors in three of nine car classes. GM brands captured four top car awards, and Ford Motor Co. brands, including Mazda, topped one truck and two car classes.

The closely watched ratings measure complaints from about 65,000 new-vehicle buyers during the first 90 days of ownership.

Although the J.D. Power organization does not release corporate rankings, the auto makers leak the results to boost their images; GM held a news conference Thursday to boast of its scores.

Thursday’s results mark the first time in the survey’s 16-year history that a domestic auto maker has made it into the top three among the major manufacturers.

Survey standings routinely fuel expensive advertising campaigns by the category winners although they measure only the first 90 days’ performance and do not differentiate among kinds of problems: A squeaky glove box gets the same weight as a catastrophic engine failure.

J.D. Power and other market research organizations also publish long-term quality and buyer satisfaction studies.

GM’s finish probably will help the company overcome a decades-old reputation for poor quality. And with its Big Three rivals Ford and the U.S. arm of DaimlerChrysler inching up in the rankings, U.S. car shoppers’ image of American cars could start improving, said Gordon Wangers, president of AMCI, a San Diego County-based auto industry consultancy.

“But it will take three to five years, because perception lags reality in matters of car quality,” Wangers said.

The industry average of 133 problems per 100 new vehicles sold or leased in the 2002 model year is the lowest problem count in the study’s history and continues an annual quality improvement trend. This year’s improvement is a 10% hike, the biggest single-year leap for the industry since 1997, said Brian Walters, product research director at Westlake Village-based J.D. Power.

“The consumer is the real winner” in the industry race for improved quality ratings, said Gary Cowger, president of General Motors North America.

Indeed, the Power study is valuable because “problems we see in initial quality are the same that turn up in the second and third year” and help predict long-term durability, said Kent Sears, GM North America’s vice president for quality.

In the corporate rankings, Toyota was first with an average of 107 complaints per 100 new cars and trucks. Honda retained its second-place spot with 113 problems per 100 vehicles.

GM, the world’s largest auto company, placed third with 130 problems per 100 cars and trucks. The company placed fourth among major auto makers last year with a score of 146.

DaimlerChrysler posted a 10% gain for the year to finish fourth with 141 problems per 100 vehicles--the total lumps Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler Group vehicles together. Ford, which placed last among the seven major auto makers last year, moved into fifth place with a score of 143.

Nissan fell into a sixth-place tie with Volkswagen of Germany, with 152 problems per 100 vehicles. That represented an improvement for VW, which scored 159 last year, but was a huge drop for Nissan, whose score of 145 last year put it in third place.

“We are not happy about this,” said Jed Connelly, senior vice president of Gardena-based Nissan North America.

Though Nissan launched several models this year, its problem rate was higher than can be explained by new-car glitches, he said.

“It is too early to pinpoint the causes,” Connelly said, “but we will do it and we will improve.”

Times staff writer Terril Yue Jones in Detroit contributed to this report.